Bloodstock 2015 Interview – Joe Nally of Hang the Bastard

On the Saturday at the festival I had the opportunity to chat to the bassist and newest member of Hang the Bastard. We chatted about the newest album, what it’s like working with Ben Ward and the gear he uses live.

Thanks to Nina from the Noise Cartel for organising and Joe for his time.

MT: You played on the Sophie Lancaster stage at the festival yesterday. How did it go?

Joe: It felt good actually. Everything on stage sounded fine and our drummer is over the moon with it. The people I spoke to said it was really good so I’m chuffed with it. The crowd response was excellent as well.

MT: Your most recent album, Sex in the Seventh Circle, came out around 10 months ago. What’s the fan response been like to it?

Joe: It’s weird because we had a big lineup change prior to the recording of it. I came in on bass and I do vocals as well. Tom the previous bass player moved over to vocals and he’s got like a black metal sort of tone. At first a few people were like “Oh this sucks”, but now people are really getting into it.

MT: You are now working with Ben Ward from Orange Goblin?

Joe: Yes we are. We’ve become friends with him over the past couple of years and he just became a booking agent for The Angency Group. We were trying to find the right person for us and he came up to us and asked us if we want to get more shows. We were like “Fuck, yeah man!”. At first we talked about football and boxing and then we talked about what shows we are going to play. Ben’s a really cool dude and we couldn’t ask for anyone better.

MT: What sort of gear do you use live?

Joe: I use Orange bass heads into a big muff pedal into a delay pedal of which I can’t remember the brand. I use an Ibanez BTB 5 string and a Fender Jazz 4 string depending on what song we are playing. The 5 string I have been playing for ages and is incredible sounding. I’ve been trying Fenders a lot more recently though.

MT: If you have time, what bands are you looking forward to seeing at the festival?

Joe: I missed Nucelar Assault yesterday and was gutted by that [I didn’t think they were that good – James]. I watched Bast, they were amazing. I also watched the last two songs of Enslaved and thought they were good. I’m looking forward to seeing Orange Goblin, Sepultura, Death DTA, Opeth and I might go watch Fleshgod Apocalypse.